Red Snapper in the Gulf

Last Sunday we went scouting for big kingfish, since there is a king tournament coming up in Freeport, Texas the following week. We knew snapper season was closed to recreational anglers, but figured we’d still catch something to eat, while running all over the Gulf in a center console Contender boat. We found the kingfish, in a narrow band of water beyond what appeared to be a large dead zone of dark water that stretched further offshore than we’d ever seen before. We landed a half dozen big kings, tailed them into the boat, and released them all. No need to hurt them.

After all, there is a health advisory against eating kingfish bigger than about 16 pounds. There is no reason to kill one of these bigger trophy 12-14 year old fish, without a very good reason. (Like first place in a tournament). So, we had fun with these big kings, and even got a couple to skyrocket, jumping 10 or 12 feet in the air. I missed those two photo shots, but I didn’t want to spend half the day peering through a camera viewfinder, waiting for such a picture. Maybe next time…

We also caught red snapper before we found the kingfish. Snapper are plentiful offshore these days, and I dropped a bare jig deep without even bait, and almost had the rod pulled from my hands.

A nice fish…We didn’t weigh it, just deflated it, took pictures, and watched it swim back down. Caught a half dozen snappers before tiring of that game. We talked about how, back in the late 1960s, we could fish all day at one of the few oil rigs we had offshore and never see a snapper bigger than a pound. There were no limits of any kind and the population seemed plundered. At Gaidos’ Restaurant in Galveston, you could order snapper and they served two to the plate. As in very small snapper. 

So, here we were many years later in a much nicer boat, floating over schools of red snapper, both big and small. But we had no fish in the box. We saw no ling (cobia). The barracuda we landed sometimes have ciguatera toxin, so we released them. 

The amberjack appeared to be even further offshore in blue water. And we were too far offshore to find edible pompano or Spanish mackerel. They were back there in the dead zone, so catching fish there was very problematical. A big patch of sargassum weed some 50 miles offshore appeared completely devoid of life. We circled it slowly, looking underneath, and never saw a minnow or crab. Much less a dolphin.

Then, further offshore and later in the day, a commercial snapper boat hove into view, one of only a few boats to be seen on a Sunday. The Chelsea Ann out of Galveston eased up to the platform, and we were impressed how many baited circle hooks were draped up and down the their boat, ready to fish.

They used electric bandit rigs, able to drop almost 20 baited hooks on each line, weighted with a heavy sash weight. And they cranked up a minimum of a dozen snapper on each drop. Lots of action on their part, and no fish released. About a hundred fish hit their deck in the first 20 minutes.

Commercial snapper boats in the Gulf of Mexico now have an individual fishing quota (IFQ) that allows them to catch their quota at any time of year, when the weather is favorable, and while spreading out the catch all year long, when prices are more good. This went into effect in 2006. I’m not sure how many million pounds of snapper they’re allowed, but it can’t be more than a few hundred boats (perhaps far less) Gulf-wide, catching these fish.

The new system of commercial fishing in good weather makes sense, avoiding the insane derby-style fishing at the start of each year, fishing in cold fronts and 15-foot seas like I used to see Captain Buddy Guindon do in Port O’Connor. The Federal rules and regs of the newer commercial IFQ system can be viewed at: 

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sf/pdfs/Red%20Snapper%20IFQ%20FAQs%20July%202009.pdf

Apparently there is now no trip limits for commercial boats. They can keep thousands of pounds of snapper from a single spot, which might explain why former honeyholes offshore are sometimes found completely devoid of snapper during the same time of year.

Meanwhile we had to sit there and watch, our fishbox empty. (Beans and rice for dinner). We burned about $300 bucks worth of fuel. We had apparently deflated each snapper we caught, so they could end up in a fish market back in Galveston. Whoops! What’s wrong with that picture? It was a long ride back to port.

Someone mentioned that snapper season may open up again this year, because recreational anglers haven’t caught their quota yet. The BP oil spill closure of a large section of the Gulf kept many boats in port this summer. And of course our snapper season was the shortest in history, less than two months. I’m guessing if the Feds re-open the season again it will be after Labor Day, when many offshore fishermen have turned their attention to hunting or football…